Clothes hanger



Dec. 14, 1954 L. E. SOLDAN CLOTHES HANGER Filed Aug. 8, 1951 flTTORNEY United States Patent 2,696,936 CLOTHES HANGER Lewis E. Soldan, San Diego, Calif.

Application August 8, 1951, Serial No. 240,911

Claims. (Cl. 223-95) This invention relates to improvements in clothes hangers. More particularly this invention relates to 1mprovements in hangers for trousers.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an improved hanger for trousers.

It has become desirable for most men to maintain distinct creases in the front portions of their trousers, and a number of devices have been proposed and built so men can hang up their trousers during periods of nonuse and thus enable those trousers to retain those creases. While a number of such devices have been proposed and used, many of those devices make it necessary to suspend the trousers in an inverted position. This is not only an unnatural position for trousers but it is a position which makes it quite easy for the contents of the trousers pockets to spill out and become broken or lost. Other of those devices are coat hangers with cross bars over which trousers can be folded. The coat hanger type of device not only requires emptying of the pockets of the trousers, but oftentimes leads to the creation of unsightly transverse creases in the legs of the trousers. For these various reasons, prior devices for enabling men to maintain the creases in the front portions of their trousers are objectionable. The present invention obviates these objections by providing a hanger for trousers which will maintain the creases in trousers during periods of non-use without necessitating the emptying of the pockets of those trousers. It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an improved hanger for trousers which supports trousers in such a way that the creases in the legs of the trousers can be maintained while the pockets of the trousers are filled or empty.

The present invention does this by providing a clothes hanger with a number of downwardly depending resilient arms that can engage spaced points on the upper end of the trousers. One of those points will be the mid-point of the rear of the trousers, another of those points will be the mid-point of the front of the trousers, and the other two points will be in alignment with the creases in the fronts of the legs of the trousers. These arms can be bent to apply a holding tension on the upper ends of the trousers, and this holding tension will maintain the trousers in engagement with the clothes hanger and v 2,696,936 Patented Dec. 14, 1954 ICC downwardly directed spaced-apart parallel arms. A

will also maintain the creases in the fronts of the legs of the trousers. It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a clothes hanger with a number of downwardly depending arms that engage spaced portions of the upper ends of trousers.

Other and further objects and advantages of the present invention should become apparent from an examination of the drawing and accompanying description.

In the drawing and accompanying description a preferred form of the invention is shown and described but it is to be understood that the drawing and accompanying description are for the purpose of illustration only and do not limit the invention and that the invention will be P defined by the appended claims.

In the drawings, Fig. 1 is a side elevational view of a clothes hanger that is made in accordance with the principles and teachings of the present invention, and it shows that clothes hanger associated with a pair of trousers,

Fig. 2 is a lar er side elevational view of the clothes han er shown in Fig. 1, and

gizg. 3 is a plan view of the clothes hanger of Figs. 1 an Referring to the drawing in detail, the numeral 10 denotes a substantially U-shaped yoke which has two bifurcated support which has a branch 12 and a branch 14 and a closed end 16 is secured to the yoke 10 at a point intermediate the downwardly depending arms of that yoke. The branches 12 and 14 are oppositely disposed of the closed end of the U-shaped yoke 10 and are spot welded to that closed end of the yoke 10 at the points 20. The bifurcated support and the yoke 10 thus are rigidly secured together to constitute a sturdy structure.

The outer ends of the bifurcated support are downwardly directed to constitute arms which are spaced on fastener-engaging surface in the shape of a hook. This fastener-engaging surface is disposed upwardly above the yoke 10 and the bifurcated support, and can he slipped over the rod in a clothes closet or a hook or a nail or other fastener.

Slip-resistant surfaces 22, in the form of cylindrical sleeves of rubber or elastomeric plastic are telescoped over the arms on the outer ends of the branches 12 and 14 of the bifurcated support; These sleeves 22 are spaced apart and are oppositely disposed of a cylindrical sleeve 24 of rubber or elastomeric plastic which is telescoped over the left hand arm of the yoke 10. A cylindrical, sleeve 26 of rubber or elastomeric plastic is telescoped over the right hand arm of the yoke 10. The surfaces 22, 24, and 26 will be yieldable and will have a high frictional coefiicient with the material of which trousers are made and will thus facilitate the holding of the trousers in engagement with the clothes hanger. If desired, the surfaces 22, 24 and 26 could be omitted and the surfaces of the arms could be roughened or could be threaded or could be grooved to increase the frictional coefficient between the arms and the material of which the trousers are made.

To use the clothes hanger provided by the present invention, it is only necessary to insert the right hand arm of the yoke 10 in the upper end of the trousers 28, as shown in Fig. l, and urge the sleeve 26 against the inner surface of the mid-point of the rear of the trousers 28. Thereafter, the cylindrical sleeves 22 on the arms at the outer ends of branches 12 and 14 of the bifurcated support can be caused to engage the inner surface of the upper end of the trousers 28 at points in alignment with the creases in the fronts of the legs of that pair of trousers. Once this has been done, the cylindrical sleeve 24 on the left hand arm of yoke 10 can be urged against the outer surface of the upper end of the trousers 28 at the midpoint of the front of those trousers. as for example adiacent the fly of those trousers. The yoke 10 and the bifurcated support will be made of resilient metal, as for example spring steel, and will be capable of being bent somewhat to place the cylindrical sleeves 22 on the outer ends of the branches l2 and 14 of the bifurcated support at the desired points on the inner surface of the upper end of the trousers; and the left hand arm of the yoke 10 can be bent to provide the desired pressure against the outer surface of the mid-point of the front of the upper end of those trousers. The bending will be easily accomplished and will enable the clothes hanger to sus end the trousers so the wei ht of the legs naturally holds the creases in L the front of those legs. The resilience of the metal of the clothes hanger will be such that the arms of the yoke 10 and of the bifurcated support will be placed against the material of the trousers 28 with sufficient force to provide frictional engagement sufiicient to hold the trousers in engagement with the clothes hanger.

The clothes hanger will permit the trousers to hang in a natural manner and will not require the emptying of the pockets of those trousers. This is desirable since it minimlzes the loss or misplacement of articles customarily carried in the trousers. Moreover, it avoids the creation of transverse creases in the sides of the legs of the trousers. To free the trousers from the clothes hanger, it is only necessary to bend the yoke 10 or the bifurcated support and slip the trousers out of engagement with the surfaces 22 and 24, and 26.

Whereas a preferred embodiment of the present invention has been shown and described in the drawing and accompanying description, it should be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes may be made in the form of the invention without affecting the scope thereof.

What I claim is:

1. A hanger that can receive a pair of trousers and can hold the upper end of said pair of trousers securely While permitting the legs of said pair of trousers to depend downwardly and preserve the creases in said legs, and that comprises a yoke with two spaced apart downwardly directed arms at the ends thereof, a support which has two spaced apart downwardly directed arms, said support being secured to said yoke intermediate the ends of said yoke, said support extending away from one of the arms of said yoke and extending toward and projecting beyond the other of said arms of said yoke to dispose said arms of said support longitudinally beyond said other arm of said yoke, said arms of said support being laterally spaced from said other arm of said yoke and being oppositely disposed of said other arm of said yoke, and a fastener-engaging surface on said hanger, said arms of said support and said other arm of said yoke defining a triangle at one side of said hanger that has one apex thereof directed toward the said one arm of said yoke and has the other apices thereof directed outwardly and away from said one arm of said yoke, said arms of said yoke and said arms of said support being selectively engageable with said upper end of said pair of trousers to support said 4 pair of trousers, said yoke and said support being formed of resilient material, said arms of said yoke and said arms of said support being readily bendable out of their normal unstressed position for movement relative to each other but tending to restore themselves to said normal unstressed position.

2. A hanger as claimed in claim 1 wherein said yoke is U-shaped and wherein said support is bifurcated and hask the closed end thereof intermediate the ends of said yo e.

3. A hanger as claimed in claim 1 wherein said support is bifurcated and has the axis thereof aligned with the axis of said yoke.

4. A hanger as claimed in claim 1 wherein said support is bifurcated and wherein the said fastener-engaging sur face of said hanger is a hook formed in the closed end of said support.

5. A hanger as claimed in claim 1 wherein said yoke is U-shaped and wherein said support is bifurcated and wherein the axis of said support is aligned with the axis of said yoke.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 800,518 Wardwell Sept. 26, 1905 1,205,551 Leach Nov. 21, 1916 

